The Jokers Final Game
by rosannahstar
Summary: The Joker is insane, that much was certain. But now he's angry... And he's ready to punish anyone who gets in his way. This time Batman and Robin may not win, and even if they do. Will they ever be the same?
1. Chapter 1

**The Jokers' final game**

The old mansion had no life left in it. Once a home of parties, dances and beautiful balls the corridors were now empty and the chandelier was hanging from the ceiling with broken strings of crystal. Once upon a time there would have been many people young and old gathered all around the exact same corridors chatting and laughing. Fifty years later there were countless rats, spiders and cockroaches crawling across the floor but now the entire mansion was deathly quiet and not a flicked of movement stirred in the darkness. The lamps no longer game out any light and even the creaking of the floorboards had stopped after years of realising no one was there to hear them.

A red ribbon lay on the floor discarded in the corner of a particularly still and small room. It seemed to emit its own strange and surreal sort of glow that contrasted brilliantly against the grey room. The paintings and portraits that hung in that room had once made it seem filled with memories but now the eyes of the people were dull and despite smiles that were painted on their faces they just seemed like empty shells. A few years ago the memories would have been present just in the image but now no flicker of memory remained. No one was there anymore to remember them. Even the portrait of the young girl with ringlet, blond hair and an energetic grin on her face now seemed lost and abandoned. Now the only thing in the room that had a link to anything living was that ribbon. It lay across a pool of crimson that was slowly spreading across the floorboards and pushing away the dirt and grime.

The smell of smoke hung in the room giving the impression that the entire building was on fire, but no orange flickers were eating away at the flesh of the old mansion just yet. Instead the smell just hung there like it was frozen in place. Nothing moved. The dust had long ago settled. Nothing moved or dared to move in such a surreal quiet. No light flooded in through the windows…

Then suddenly it was as if the whole place came to life. A single shocked scream rang through the halls loud and clear. It vibrated off the walls and echoed through the rooms. At the same time a loud thud of thunder sounded from ahead. There was movement from somewhere in the walls and a rat squeaked. The floorboards creaked from overhead in the highest room and a loud deranged sort of laughter thundered through the mansion. The laugh was crazed, instinctive and uncontrollable. Coupled with the ominous thuds and bumps from above, the mansion had never seemed more alive for a very long time. However, when it had last been alive it had been different. Then the people living there were remotely happy, sure they had their secrets but so did every family. Now the only inhabitants of the mansion was a man who was so far past the brink of sanity he didn't even care anymore and a young woman screaming and desperately fighting for her life. It was as if the house was literally feeding from his insanity and now it seemed even deeper in madness than it had ever seemed before.

The room that the man was stood in was so unlike the other rooms in the mansion that it looked like it didn't belong there at all. The walls were covered in smears of paint of all different colours. Huge smears of purple, yellow, green, blue and orange covered the room and made it look like a children's bedroom. But the most disturbing of all the colours that decorated the room were the bright, ruby stains that ran across the floor and covered a small, writhing body in the corner of the room. A young woman was lain there, her eyes wide with fear and blood soaking her freezing cold body. She wasn't naked but the small, tight white dress did nothing to keep her warm. The man stood above her with a bucket in his hands that were shaking with excitement and anticipation. Dripping from it was blood and her repeatedly through it all over the woman where she was crying and screaming. In the corner of the room lay the corpses of over fifty dead rats. Their little throats had been slit and their blood had been drained into the buckets. The woman was beyond disturbed and her voice was hoarse from screaming. The man suddenly knelt beside her yanking her blond hair away from her face and laughing at the sight of mascara trailing down her cheeks.

"Remember what I told you?" He asked. She closed her eyes to get away from his scrutinising gaze but he impatiently tapped her on the cheek, not appreciating being ignored. She opened her eyes and was met yet again by his bright green ones brimming with madness.

She nodded her head slightly and he grinned spitefully.

"So…" He said looking down at her as she looked up at him with desperate eyes.

"Do it quick," she begged.

His grin broadened and quickly as if he'd been waiting for this moment for a long time. She winced at his victorious expression and mentally prepared herself. Two months of being tortured in his clutches and this was how it was going to end. She couldn't believe it. Where was the silver lining? Where was the light in the end of the tunnel? Then again, at least it was all coming to a close. Now she could say what she'd wanted to say all along.

"You know, I know it's twisted after all you've done. But you were right… You said I'd be begging for death and know here I am. But just know this. I think I love you. In a weird way I still love you despite all of this," She gestured to herself and burst out crying her energy all taken.

This time the man didn't laugh. It was as if all humour had left the moment. Kneeling beside her so his warm breath was directly next to her ear he smiled slightly.

"They all say that dear."

Her eyes closed as she saw him reaching for a knife and he placed it by her chest. She felt the cold metal dig into her skin and let herself go limp. It was all over. She didn't even notice as he dug the knife into her chest. All she saw was a flash of white that faded out all sense of longing, fear and despair. Then there was nothing.

The man smiled at his work. He looked at her body but didn't feel anything for her. So she loved him. Well, that was amusing to say the least. He'd have laughed to himself but it was too deep. He only wanted harmless fun. Was that so wrong?

Looking at the room around him and suddenly all he could see was the dead woman and he sighed. He couldn't stay here. Too many memories made him feel sad and he didn't like the feeling one bit. He didn't like this house anymore. Somewhere in his head he registered that the moment he left he'd set fire to the old mansion. He'd laugh from outside as the wind fuelled the burning hot flames and the old place crumbled like an old piece of paper. Then he'd leave. He had one last thing to do, one last moment of fun and one last game. After that he would be no more. But Batman and Robin would be joining him in his trip to hell…

After all, the Joker always goes out with a bang.

**A/N: Sorry if there's any confusion about that chapter. I will be explaining the story line in later chapters and yeah the woman who just died will be playing an important part in the story so don't worry, all will be revealed in later chapters. Anyway, thank you for reading, hope you liked it and please review! I'd love to hear your feedback.**


	2. Chapter 2

The bright summer's day was fading and a dull, lifelessness was settling over the park. The trees moaned as the wind whipped at their branches and the leaves blew across the pavement with a scrapping noise. The evening patrol had begun exactly as it should. Bruce and Damien Wayne were securely hidden behind their masks and Batman and Robin had emerged into the night searching for any crime that could be happening around Gotham City. Batman was stood on top of a particularly tall building so he had a perfect birds-eye view of the street below. Many people were still crowding the main streets trying to get home or going towards the many night clubs and bars that surrounded Gotham City. Batman was able to immediately eye a group of teenagers who were already drunkenly stumbling over the pavement and arguing fiercely about the bouncer's refusal to let them into the club. Some of them seemed to already be acting violent and other ones seemed to have a violent nature that could easily emerge if they were pushed. However, these teenagers were not the kinds of teenagers that bothered Batman. Even from where he was, concealed in shadows, he could tell that the bouncer had things covered and surely the police would be arriving soon if they began to cause any more of a scene. There were certain jobs that Batman and Robin left to the police and other jobs that they saved for themselves.

The criminals that Batman and Robin dealt with were often the ones that needed immediate attention. For example, if there was an armed robbery with hostages Batman would make sure to save the innocent civilians, if there was a mugging he would subdue the attacker and leave the criminal for the police. There were other, much more vile and terrible crimes that Batman and Robin dealt with on a daily basis. But even though his cowl covered his face and Batman liked to think of himself as a completely different person on patrol, his parental instincts for the boy still shone through. Damien was only a young boy and he deserved to grow up in his own time and with enough normality in his life despite the fact he was Robin. As a result of this even as Batman, Bruce Wayne was still fighting as a parent to keep Damien away from the fights and criminals that Batman knew may frighten the boy or leave him with mental scars. Bruce had learned the hard way that he'd never given Dick the chance to grow up. Eventually he'd decided he wanted to go off on his own as Nightwing and fight his own fights. It wasn't the fights that worried Bruce though. He knew that Nightwing was strong enough to handle himself but he never thought there'd be a day when he wouldn't be able to protect Nightwing. Maybe the fact that he and Nightwing hadn't spoken for such a long time was because Nightwing had finally decided to rebel. What scared Bruce the most though was the fact that if anything bad happened to Dick he may never know. His heart bled at the fact that the boy he looked at as one of his sons was gone. But unless Dick decided to forgive him Batman knew there wasn't anything more he could do. However, he didn't want his relationship with Damien to end up the same way.

In order to search for criminals Batman kept his eyes trained on the alleyways and the small buildings on the outskirts of the city. He felt that as they were the quietest and most cut off areas of the city, criminals would be most likely to strike there. Experience had shown him that his theory was correct. However, maybe had he been spending his time looking towards the park instead he'd have seen the young child sat on the bench in the dark, alone with a gun resting in his lap and he bit his bottom lip nervously…

"Seems like it will be a quiet night tonight Robin," Batman stated still looking for any obvious signs for concern, but finding none. Robin sighed looking a little discouraged at the simple fact that there would be no one for him to beat up that night. Batman grinned a little behind his mask knowing that Damien hated going back to the mansion after a night had been empty of action and violence. All it took to put Damien in a reasonably good mood for the evening was to come home after successfully beating to a bloody pulp around a dozen bad guys that patrol. Once upon a time Batman was worried when he had to reign himself in from going over the top and seriously injuring the criminals, but now most of his energy was taken making sure that Damien didn't kill the guys before the police got to them. For a young kid he had a lot of bottled up anger.

For two hours Batman and Robin knelt on the roof of the building in almost complete silence apart from Robin occasionally groaning impatiently and hopping on each foot to get the feeling back in his legs. Just as even Batman was getting fed up and was about to call it a night they spotted their first sign of trouble. In an alleyway there was a young woman pulling out some notes from her purse and handing them to a man who had his hood pulled up over his head. Her body language was relaxed as if this was an everyday conversation but his body language was guarded as if he had something to hide. Robin was looking somewhere in the opposite direction but Batman couldn't draw his eyes away. The man handed the woman a packet of what looked like white powder. Batman supposed that it was drugs but that didn't worry him that much. What worried him were the five men that from his position above he could see clearly approaching the two figures in the alleyway from either side trapping them. The woman was about to leave but as she span she saw the man closest to her and let out a surprised scream. However, the scream soon turned into one of horror when the man pulled out a gun. Two more men emerged and circled the man who crouched down fearfully when he noticed that they both had knives. The other two men seemed to be on watch and were keeping an eye out for anyone approaching.

"Robin! Quick!" Batman shouted above the wind and he and Robin jumped into the night. Robin leapt to the building closest, quickly making his way to the ground and Batman followed. Both of them enjoyed the adrenaline rush that travelling this way gave them. They could feel the wind rushing past them and blowing up their capes. In their opinion there was no better way to feel alive. Plus this way they were sure to end up directly above the men who were attacking and take them by surprise, hopefully before any shots were fires.

In a moment Robin jumped from the roof of a small house just across from the alleyway and hid carefully in the shadows, using his small frame to his advantage. With his position he'd be able to keep the two criminals nearest to the man at bay if the need arose. At the moment no one seemed to be moving. The man and woman were still covering and whimpering in fear but the screams had died on the woman's lips and the men with the weapons didn't seem to be moving. Batman peered over the edge of the building he was perched on. It was much smaller than the other one but he still had a clear view. If anyone moved he'd be able to react fast. He just hoped that Robin didn't blow their cover. The one thing that Damien was not known well for was his patience.

Suddenly it was as if the scene jumped back into action. Batman saw the man's finger nearing the trigger on the gun and the woman's eyes widen in fear. Knowing he wouldn't be able to stop the man firing he jumped down and threw himself onto the larger mans' back. The man gave a shout of surprise and topples forwards. He dropped the gun just as it went off, but the bullet completely missed the woman and hit the wall next to her. Startled by the bang she gave out a shocked cry and bolted out of the alleyway. But Batman didn't care, he had more to take care of. The man had recovered and now was standing over Batman. From the beginning Batman knew that the man was large but now it was certain. The man was huge. He snarled at Batman, his face taking on an ugly sneer and leapt at him. Batman struggled to remain upright and forced the man back into the wall.

"You don't know who you're messing with!" Batman hissed, his face inches away from the man. The man's face turned a dangerous and furious red before he punched out with his fist. Caught off guard by the sudden onslaught Batman didn't react in time to stop it and tumbled backwards. As the world span around him Batman glanced across from him to where Robin was fighting with the two other men with the knives. He was doing a good job at staying away from the knives and he seemed to be winning the fight. Batman smiled with pride and stood up, pushing aside his dizziness with a renewed sense of vigour and jumping at the man closest.

"Hey where are you going? Get back here!" Robin yelled as the two me ran away from him. Somewhere inside he knew that he probably shouldn't follow the men but anger had clouded his vision. He raced as fast as he could towards them and was easily able to catch up to them. He tackled them to the ground and hit them sharply across the head, knocking them both unconscious. He was about to take the knives from them when he saw something that made his blood run cold.

In front of him was a boy, stood in shadows with only half of his face visible to Damien. His eyes widened as he realised that the boy was probably no older than he was.

"Hey, you better leave now idiot. Can't you see it's not safe here," Robin yelled. As soon as he said it, it was as if everything went eerily silent. The boy gave a half smile but his eyes showed sadness and regret. It unnerved Robin greatly.

"Leave now!" Damien instructed harshly, hoping that the boy would take the message.

Instead of leaving the alleyway the boy's grin only grew and he raised up his hand. Robin's heart skipped a beat. In the young boys hand he held a gun of some kind. On instinct Damien leapt into the air and as far away from the gun as possible, but he wasn't quick enough. He felt a sharp pain in his leg before his body toppled to the ground. Looking down he was surprised to see a large dart embedded in his leg. Cringing he tried to reach down to pull it out but his vision swam and his head fell to the pavement. A feeling of helplessness flooded through him. There was nothing he could do…

"Message to Batman," The boy said, almost robotically. Damien felt his thoughts fade and his vision went dark at the edges.

"From the Joker… And from Nightwing."

**Ok… I'm not too sure I like this chapter. Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed it. Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer (should have been in chapter one): I do not own Batman :( **

Batman stood to his full height. When he stood up tall like that he truly looked like something out of a nightmare. In the glare of the streetlights his shadow could be seem clear on the brick wall. Even Batman's shadow looked strong, brave and magnificent. But everyone knew that if you got on the wrong side of Batman he could easily turn from protective and powerful to deadly and violent. As a result most villains stayed as far away from him as possible, and ran as fast as they could whenever he drew near. So, in Batman's opinion the man who was now lay on the ground in front of him, bruised and battered, was either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish.

The man moaned miserably and tried to reach for his gun, not realising that Batman had kicked it away ten minutes ago. When his mind finally registered that he now had no weapon, he turned to Batman with an ugly scowl on his face. However, when Batman's firm gaze on him never faltered once, his body language slackened and his eyes closed in defeat.

"Hey," Batman said, and although Batman didn't shout his voice held so much authority the man's gaze locked on his again.

"You want to tell me what all that was about?" Batman asked. In response the man snickered and aimed a spit in Batman's direction. Batman swiftly stepped back away from him and frowned in annoyance at him. Disgusted he grabbed the man and pushed his against a streetlight.

"Or not…" Batman mumbled, his tone laced with anger. He didn't like being disrespected, especially by people like this. Deciding he didn't much care for answers anymore he grabbed a small rope that he had placed neatly in his utility belt and set about tying the man's wrists together behind the streetlight. The man tried feebly to kick and squirm away from Batman's grip but he didn't stand a chance. Easily overpowering the man Batman stepped back at a safe distance so that he wouldn't be spat at again and watched as the man struggles uselessly against the ropes.

"The police will be here soon. Maybe you'll answer to them," Batman turned swiftly away and began to walk towards where he'd seen Robin fighting a moment before. Surprise took him when he realised that Robin wasn't there anymore and neither were the two men he'd been fighting with. There was evidence of a fight everywhere Batman looked. He could see a few pieces of material that he recognised as part of one of the man's black jacket and a bit of blood next to it. Batman felt a rush of concern but quickly forced it away. The chance that the blood was Damian's was minimal. Damian was a fierce fighter and had obviously just beaten the men up and left a few scratches. There was no chance that Damian was hurt, in fact the most that Batman had to worry about was the fact that Damian could have killed the men.

Never the less when Batman set off in the only direction that they could have gone, Batman began to feel a little uneasy. As the feeling of uneasiness steadily grew Batman unconsciously quickened his pace. The dark alleyway rushed past him and the wind rushed in his ears. His concern was completely unjustified, wasn't it? Robin would be just fine. He'd be stood in front of the criminals with a confident grin on his face after successfully beating the two men up.

"He'll be fine…" Batman whispered to himself but he still felt his panic growing.

He knew that something was off even before he rounded the corner. But when he did he wasn't prepared for the sight that greeted him. Swearing under his breath he ran towards where his son was lay in the alleyway twitching slightly and turning restlessly as if having a nightmare. Both of the men were missing and Damian was completely alone. Batman was sure one of the men had done this to his son but knew they were probably long gone. Batman could only curse himself for not finding his son sooner…

"Robin! What's wrong? Can you hear me?" Batman asked his voice rising in panic. He easily picked his son up into his arms, holding him securely against his chest.

"Robin, please answer me! What's wrong?"

When Robin began to shake even more in his arms, but remained unconscious Batman's eyes widened in alarm. It took a lot of things to scare him but he had never considered that one day his son would be lay in his lap shaking and unconscious, and Batman wouldn't know what to do to help him. So, he did the only thing he could do in this situation. He began checking his son over for injuries. After a few seconds he saw the dart still stuck in Robin's leg. Swiftly Batman pulled it out of his son's leg and fixed his gaze on it. Wrapped around the dart was a note. Hoping that the paper might hold the answers to what had happened to his son Batman pulled the note off from around the dart and unwrapped the paper. What was written on the note made his heart skip a beat and the roaring in his ears intensify in volume. Written in untidy handwriting across the paper were the words, "Looks like another birds wings have been clipped this night. See you soon Batman. Sincerely the Joker." A large smudge of red underlined the signature.

Batman clenched his fist and slammed it against the ground, ignoring the white hot pain that spread up his right arm. The pain only made his anger rise. Batman had always said that Damian reminded him a little too much of Jason, with his often uncontrollable anger and his urges to fatally wound the criminals he faced. But Batman would be damned if he let the Joker take Damian off of him like he had taken Jason. However, when Batman saw the image at the bottom of the paper he felt like his heart had just been shredded. Tied to a table with his arms stretched painfully was Nightwing. His eyes were wide with a type of fear that Batman had never seen in them before and he had bruises and scrapes down his arms and legs. Some of them were small and barely noticeable, but some of them were large and bleeding. Batman saw red and almost tore up the paper, before he thought better of it and roughly crumpled it up in his fist, hoping to analyse it when he got back to the Batcave. Batman sat silently thinking everything through and tightening his grip on Robin. Robin was injured and it was probably serious, and the Joker had Nightwing. How had this day turned so sour all of a sudden?

He was violently pulled out of his thoughts when Robin stirred and woke up with a gasp.

"Hey, hey calm down kiddo, it's ok," Batman soothed trying to sooth Robin. But when Damian began to squirm in his arms to get away from his grasp he began to panic. Batman tightened his grip on his son and very carefully, Batman ran unsteady fingers over his son's brow and down to the little spot on his neck where a heartbeat was supposed to be. His own heart raced as he felt the heart beat thud erratically against his fingers. Robin's eyes were staring at him from behind the mask but the eyes were wide and terrified. His son hadn't left him but he wasn't really with him either. He was like a piece of precious china that might shatter if Batman handled him too roughly. All of a sudden Batman looked at his hands. Once he looked at them as strong and firm but now they looked clumsy and rough. He realised how easily he could break his son and all of a sudden he was lost in fear for the boy's life. He could never replace a boy like Damian.

Damian arched his back and coughed in his father's grip, a tiny drop of blood pouring down the corner of his mouth.

"Ah… Stop, it hurts," Damian grunted, still only half aware of what was happening, and Batman felt tears gather in his eyes. He stubbornly refused to let them fall and stood up still cradling his son in his strong arms. He had to be strong.

"Just hang in there, we'll be home soon," Batman reassured his son pushing a strand of his unruly hair behind his ear.

"I'm sorry Robin, I should have taken better care of you… Both of you." His thoughts drifted back to Nightwing but he quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and rushed to the Batmobile. Batman was desperate to go and search for the Joker and to save Nightwing and to make the Joker pay to what he did to Damian. But despite his anger Batman knew that Damian was in real danger and needed to get back to the mansion as soon as possible. As soon as his son was safe with Alfred Batman would save Dick from the hands of that madman and the Joker would pay. He just hoped whatever Damian had been infected with wasn't too serious, even though knowing the Joker, it probably was.

"Just hang on little Robin, we'll be home soon."

_***Line Break***_

Alone in the Jokers cave Nightwing lay strapped to a huge wooden table, his arms and legs bound. He jerked his arms and legs around as best as he could but the ropes held firm. The room around him was what Dick could only describe as something out of a horror movie. The walls were completely white apart from the writing on the walls. The writing was all in red and dripped ominously down the walls but apart from that there was nothing else in the room with Nightwing. He was completely alone. Nightwing looked closer at the writing but no matter how close he looked he couldn't tell if it was paint or blood. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know… Nightwing had seen worse but for some reason this entire situation was filling him with dread. Maybe it was because what was written on the wall was something that Nightwing would never have expected from the Joker.

Written in the vivid red in block capitals was the name 'SAMANTHA' and below each name were the words 'The time is now!'

**Thank you for the reviews. Really appreciate them and I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter. Oh, and I realised that in the last chapter I spelt Damian's name wrong so I tried to spell it right in this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it, and please review.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I apologize to everyone who read the first update of this chapter but I made some mistakes I really wasn't proud of. For that I'm sorry...**

**This is the next chapter of The Jokers Final Game. I was receiving constant reminders off a friend from school that I really needed to update this so… Here it is. Hope you like it and enjoy.**

"_Sometimes I feel alone_

_Sometimes I feel too crowded_

_Sometimes I really can't stand to be touched_

_It's like if they touch me I'll infect them _

_But if they stay too far away they're in danger_

_Sometimes it's like I'm looking through a sheet of pure light_

_No one knows where I am…_

_And I can't see them anymore."_

Lucy bit her bottom lip so that it rested between her teeth as her eyes scanned the page. It was almost impossible for her to understand that words, so packed with emotion, had once come from her mind… It seemed like another life. She couldn't even remember writing them. She stroked the paper, lightly scratching at it with her nails as she tried to remember but all that came up were blanks. Her mind was muddled and her thoughts spun out of her control whenever she tried to understand them. Trying to remember her past made her head hurt.

The icy wind blew the dusty shutters against the peeling window frames. As Lucy looked up it blew her long, unruly hair across her face, stroking her skin delicately. She shivered from the sudden cold and pulled at the thin material of her red dress, winding the fraying material round her fingers. The darkness of night was settling in again and she could see the small flickers of light from the stars as the clouds parted. Each sparkled like little needles and tiny splinters of light emerged from them, barely enough to light up the pavement. Lucy hated the night time. Night was when he came to see her. All of a sudden the room was the room was dark, so dark. A large black shape had covered her window completely plunging her bedroom into pitch black darkness. She made sure her eyes were open, fearing she had gone blind. She couldn't see her hand, even though it was only an inch from her face. This had become like a routine for her… But all of a sudden the same emotion hit her full force.

Panic. Panic shot through her so fast she felt as if her heart was thudding against her chest so hard it would burst. She hid under the covers, only letting a little hole for air. She knew she was being stupid, he'd never truly hurt her before and she should be used to this by now, yet fear was still taking over. Fear of the horrific things that hid in the dark. The endless depths of emptiness and madness that lay within his gaze. The dark memories that plagued him so much that he laughed through his pain even though it was so obviously there. Lucy whimpered quietly to herself and waited for the mad man to make his appearance…

*Line Break*

But the mad man was busy. He was plating the dead girls hair, winding the pretty blond strands through his fingers and ignoring the ruby stains running through some of the threads. He pulled her head up further onto his lap and almost tenderly stroked the almost porcelain white skin of her cheek. However, his hand paused as he reaches a slightly grey area on the left side of her face next to her lifeless, staring eyes. He lightly scraped it with his nails, not enough to peel the skin but enough to realise it wasn't going anywhere. A slight frown covered his usually smiling face but it quickly dissolved to his signature grin. She was still growing… Even though she was dead her skin was still turning grey as time passed. Her lips looked more blue every day and he wasn't sure if it was just him but he could swear he could see the emptiness behind her gaze grow every time he came to see her. It was like she was still alive. Still like the innocent, bright and inquisitive little girl she'd been when he first met her. Roughly he placed a kiss to the top of the dead woman's forehead; his teeth lightly scratching at the skin, and a large smear of red left his lips and covered her delicate skin. The Joker didn't even know if that blood was his or hers' anymore. He didn't care.

He could hear thrashing from the next room and new that the time he had with her was running short. Samantha was soon going to be in a place no one could touch her. Not even him… It saddened him to think that this girl would soon be in a place beyond hell and he'd have to wait a long time to see her again. She still had a beautiful body but it was already becoming marred with impurities. Pretty soon her body would decay to nothing but bones to be thrown in a dump or a river somewhere. There was no point burying bones. Bones held nothing in them.

"Farewell my love," The Joker whispered, but then after a second he broke into a huge grin and laughed manically.

He'd taken Nightwing who was now completely at his mercy. Stage one was complete. Now it was finally time to move on to Stage two of his final game.

*Line Break*

Nightwing was done fighting. His arms ached from yanking at his bonds and his legs cramped whenever he moved them or tried to kick his way out. He was sure that the skin was red and raw from the effort but he couldn't move his head enough to see. It terrified Nightwing to know that if the Joker decided to attack him he wouldn't be able to do anything to defend himself. He wasn't used to the feeling and had already decided he didn't like it at all. He was suddenly reminded of the day his parents died. That was the only other time he'd felt completely useless was when he'd watched his parents fall to their deaths. Of course this wasn't nearly as heart-breaking as that moment, but there was something about being alone with the Joker that unnerved him. Nightwing was used to the company of Batman whenever they fought against him.

The creaking of a door broke Nightwing out of his thoughts and he looked up beyond his mask to see the Joker entering his room. The white of the room around him suddenly seemed much darker and the darkness from the room outside his room poured in like smoke. The Joker stepped away from the shadows leaving the door open so that it looked as if the shadows crawled around the Joker grasping loosely at his clothes…

The Jokers expression seemed sharper than ever with almost animalistic features. Charging towards the bed like a wild and dangerous dog he grinned in triumph as he gazed at Nightwing with a Cheshire cat smile spreading across his face.

"You! I really managed to… I can't believe this! So many things that I have planned. Where to start?" The Joker murmured to himself for quite some time pushing his face close to Nightwing's. Nightwing tried to stay from but he cringed when he smelt the disgusting odour of the man's breath and the fact that he had a stripe of blood running down one side of his face.

Sensing Nightwing's uneasiness the Joker smiled with mock kindness and pulled something out from underneath the bed. Dick strained his neck so that he could make out what the Joker was doing. When the Joker bent down his t-shirt lifted slightly and Dick winced slightly not out of pity but out of disgust when he saw how emancipated the criminal had become. Distantly he wondered where the purple jacket that the man always seemed to wear had gone but he doubted that that fact really mattered in his situation.

"So where to begin?" The Joker asked his smile growing so wide Dick feared it would split his face. In his hands rested a black mallet that he lightly tapped against his hands. In the intensity of the moment the black eye makeup that the Joker wore to create shadows around his eyes seemed much darker and his eyes were even more shrunken in his madness. It was as if the mere prospect of violence was so much a thrill for him that he couldn't contain his insanity any longer and it radiated from him in waves.

Dick tried to fight away but he wasn't able to make the ropes budge.

"Why am I here? What do you want?" Dick asked. When he received no response he gulped slightly but held firm.

"No matter what you do to me Batman will find you, you know. He'll stop you and make you pay and you won't even see it coming."

This received a small smirk from the Joker. He lightly ran his sharp nails down Nightwing's arms admiring the way that Goosebumps rose to the surface just from his light touch.

"Oh, I shouldn't think so. Batman will surely be a bit preoccupied with other things my dear boy," the Joker said, his smile never faltering once.

Dick suddenly went cold and fixed the Joker with a stare of pure hatred. He hadn't seen Bruce since the day they had fought but he still couldn't stand the thought that this monster may have hurt the one man he ever looked up to as a father figure after his father died. He'd tried to tell himself for so long that he didn't care about what happened to Bruce but he knew better than to lie to himself any more. He never believed himself anyway.

"If you've hurt him I swear I'll rip what's left of your heart from your chest and…" The Joker silenced his rant with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Hush now," he said, as if he was trying to reason with an annoying infant.

Suddenly he firmly grasped Dick's arm and Dick gasped at the cold contact. The Jokers eyes narrowed.

"Can't have you escaping… I guess we'll start here then."

Dick never saw it coming. The mallet came down with a huge thud on his left arm and a long snap echoed through the room. For a moment the room became silent again and that silence seemed to last an eternity. But then the silence was shattered by a scream and a laugh echoing through the building at the same time. One was filled with pain and the other was filled with glee and a hunger for more blood.

Dust rose in the little bedroom and the wind rose to a thunderous moan, lifting the shutters and thumping them forcefully against the window. Lights flashed outside and then suddenly all was silent. Eerily silent… Under her covers Lucy shivered.

**Ok. You had to wait a long time for that chapter and for that I apologize. But I had a huge case of writers block. Anyway I have my ideas back and plan to update much faster in future. Hope you enjoyed and please review! I really want to know what you all thought.**


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